Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Output of Berliner Weisse 1885 – 1937

Nowhere near done with Berliner Weisse yet. This time we’ll be looking at how much of it was being brewed.

I’ll warn you: the figures are nothing like complete. For a start, it’s not everyone, just members of the Weissbier Brewers’ Association (Verein der Berliner Weißbierbrauereien). And it doesn’t even have the output for all of those.

It’s not clear whether the figures are for Berliner Weisse or for all beer produced. Though from the names it’s clear that many were specialist Weissbier breweries. So we can assume at least a reasonable amount of those figures really is Weissbier.

According to Methner (quoting Schönfeld) in 1897-98 there were 71 Weissbier breweries making between them 1.3 million hl of Berliner Weisse.* I make that an average of 18,310 hl per brewery. Which is a fairly modest amount. The 15 breweries for whom the output is given for 1885, produced on average 38,043 hl per annum. I think it’s safe to say that included there are most of the larger producers.

Table 18 Weissbier breweries that founded the
Verein der Berliner Weißbierbrauereien E.V. (on the attendance list there is
no date!)

By 1913/14, output of Berliner Weisse had fallen to around 500,000 hl**. But it didn’t stop there. In 1933 just 123,000 hl were brewed and in 1937 117,000 hl.*** By 2010 just 10,180 hl of Berliner Weisse were sold in the off trade****, meaning total output couldn’t have been more than 20,000 or 25,000 hl.

You have to wonder how long the association lasted. Because a huge percentage of the member breweries closed between 1910 and 1930. The second table shows when most of those closures occurred. Though care needs to be taken. Breithaupt and Landré are shown as closing in 1927, whereas in fact they merged. In reality, Breithaupt produced Berliner Weisse until 1968.

Weisssbier
brewery closures by decade

year

closures

%

1890-1899

1

4.00%

1900-1909

2

8.00%

1910-1919

12

48.00%

1920-1929

7

28.00%

1930-1939

1

4.00%

after WW II

2

8.00%

Total

25

100.00%

Not sure where we’re going next. Either some more tables or more detailed descriptions of brewing methods.